Boreal regions with a diversity of geological and soil substrates, such as Far East Russia, the Scandes Mountains, and the northern Rocky Mountains of North America, are relatively species-rich compared to more uniform areas such as the Canadian Shield or the Ob Basin.

There are many kettle (produced by the melting of buried glacial ice), moraine, and ice-scour lakes on the undulating terrain of postglacial arctic landscapes (e.g., the Canadian Shield, Fennoscandia, and the Kola Peninsula; [49]).

For example, clear-flowing rivers of the Canadian Shield have higher biodiversity at lower trophic levels (e.g., invertebrates) than very turbid rivers of the lowlands of Siberia and the Interior Plain of Canada [32].

The abundance of ground ice is a key factor in subsidence, such that areas with little ice (e.g., the Canadian Shield or Greenland bedrock masses) will suffer fewer subsidence effects when permafrost degrades.